JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN

-by Noah

For those interested in the intersection of rock music, film, and politics, an excellent new film, The Future Is Unwritten, by noted British director Julien Temple, is opening this weekend in a minimum of 13 markets across America. It already opened in Los Angeles and New York last weekend and has been well received in England for several weeks.

The Future Is Unwritten is a biographical documentary of iconic Clash frontman, Joe Strummer. The title of the film itself is a favorite saying of of Strummer's, reflecting his belief that individuals, alone and together, can have a positive, progressive effect on the future of the world we live in. If Strummer had only been the frontman and lyricist in The Clash, his place in the rock pantheon would be secure. But, like Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and John Lennon, he was a vocal conscience of a generation and the understanding of his importance continues to grow. The fact that Temple and Strummer knew each other for 30 years has given rise to a film that shows a greater than usual depth of just who the subject was and why he is worthy of the attention beyond his impressive musical legacy. You don't even have to be a fan of his music. Strummer's personality and intellect stands on its own. Strummer was more than a Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer.

The film gets into Joe's background as a middle class career diplomat's son and his questioning and eventual rejection of that background. Born John Graham Mellor, he did more than just change his name. Joe Strummer wasn't necessarily a character that he played, Joe Strummer was an identity. He considered himself a world citizen with a special empathy for those not born into privilege. Growing up in the ultimate class conscious society was no barrier to what he became and the influence he had. The film discusses, his family, his brother, a fan of the nazis, who ended up committing suicide, his early years as a wandering musician who clearly idolized Woody Guthrie, his time spent in a squat in London, his pub band The 101rs, the formation of The Clash, their importance and their dissolution and finally his somewhat underrated post Clash musical career and even his life as a BBC DJ where he displayed an uncanny ability to thread disparate musical genres together for the listeners and show how they were all inter-related due to their very realness and their common humanity. His sensitivity and the wonder he found in the voices of the world music of other cultures made you want to listen just as with his own music you not only believed the sincerity of his outrage, you shared it by the end of the first chorus! It's that outrage and sincerity, that honesty, that was at the core of his most famous musical entity, The Clash. Together with Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon, The Clash achieved what few musical artists ever achieve. They changed not only the music of their time, they changed popular culture. It was The Clash who made the first true British Punk LP. It was The Clash that incorporated political thought, not just nihilism or novelty into their songs, showing their generation something that had been forgotten; that rock music could say something incendiary about whatever the artist wanted (Suggested listening: White Riot, Career Opportunities, The Clampdown, all utterly groundbreaking in their time, filling a vacuum), and it was The Clash that, as exemplified by "White Man In Hammersmith Palais", brought black reggae and white rock together, paving the way for others to add Jamaican beats to their art. Later on, they did the same when they came to New York for their legendary extended stay at Bonds and not only embraced the sounds of hip hop in their music but invited some of New York's leading hip hoppers to open for them, including Grand Master Flash And The Furious Five. Their audience wasn't necessarily supportive at first, but, they ended up following The Clash's lead. Once again, The Clash had brought people who didn't know each other together just as they brought other musics into their own. That's what Strummer was all about. As he would say on his radio show, we can make a difference. Simple actions can make a difference.